India’s Environment Ministry's colour codes industries on their pollution potential

The government of India today released a new colour-coded categorisation of industries based on their pollution potential. Industries are now to be classied as Red, Orange or Green, depending upon their pollution loadand will see different rules. A fourth category, White, is for 'practically non-polluting industries'.

The industry categorisation is based on a pollution index (PI) which takes into account the emissions (air pollutants), effluents (water pollutants) and hazardous waste generated and the resources a particular industry consumes. The increasing value of PI denotes the increasing degree of pollution load from the industrial sector.

Industries which score 60 and above on a 1-100 scale are rated Red. Those scoring between 41-60 are Orange, while a score between 21 and 39 is rated Green. The White (and exempt) category is for industries which score between 1 to 20.

No Red category industry will normally be permitted in ecologically fragile area / protected area.

Releasing the new categorisation, Prakash Javadekar, the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, said: “The new category of White industries which is practically non-polluting will not require Environmental Clearance (EC) and Consent and will help in getting finance from lending institutions. The exercise of re-categorisation was being carried out for the last one year. This is a landmark decision to give a fair picture of the industries”.

“Re-categorisation of industries based on their pollution load is a scientific exercise. The old system of categorisation was creating problems for many industries and was not reflecting the pollution of the industries. The new categories will remove this lacuna and will give a clear picture to everyone. Twenty-five industrial sectors which were not critically polluting were also earlier categorised as Red. This was creating a wrong impression to everyone,” Javadekar added.

The newly-introduced White category contains 36 industrial sectors which are practically non-polluting. There is no necessity of obtaining the Consent to Operate for the White category of industries. An intimation to concerned SPCB / PCC will suffice.

AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURING AMONG 60 RED SECTORS
As per the detailed list, the automobile manufacturing industry (integrated) is among the 60 industries which have been classified under the 'Red' category. Automobile servicing and repair falls in the 'Orange' category which details 83 industries.

The newly introduced White category of industries (36) pertains to those industrial sectors which are practically non-polluting, such as biscuit trays from rolled PVC sheet (using automatic vacuum forming machines), cotton and woolen hosiers making (Dry process only without any dying/washing operation), electric lamps (bulb) and CFL manufacturing by assembling only, scientific and mathematical instrument manufacturing, solar power generation through photovoltaic cell, wind power and mini hydel power (less than 25 MW).

The press note says that the purpose of the categorisation is to ensure that the industry is established in a manner which is consistent with the governmental environmental objectives. The new criteria will prompt industrial sectors willing to adopt cleaner technologies, ultimately resulting in generation of fewer pollutants.